You know that one personyou have at work? That one that can make your work life miserable?

If you’re a boss or a supervisor, I’m sure you know what I mean. You try and try to get a good team together, one that works well and in harmony- one that fits neatly into a well-oiled, teambuilding, efficient superpower machine but you have that one cog that does not want to work with the others. That one piece of the puzzle that doesn’t want to fit in with the group or the team, unless it’s on their own terms or within their own self-determined standards. That one that would rather take notes about you, documenting every incident, keeping an eye on all your breaks and lunches to find a way to backstab you, the Supervisor, instead of fitting in and relishing in the extra freedoms the Supervisor provides to everyone in the unit.

That one misfit within the company that wants to blame everyone else for their misfortunes instead of seeing that they, themselves, and their own personality tics might be the cause and the reason for their treatment within the unit and their twisted perceptions of their own sad situation. No one is untouchable or beyond reproach. Every one of us has something we can adjust in our lives or within our personality so that we can flow within a group of individuals with strikingly different personalities. No one is correct all the time or perfect but for some reason there is always that one among a group who feels that way. Who thinks that they are truly amazing, wonderful, a humanitarian but with an ego the size of the Universe. That one who does their job well but when you get down to the nitty gritty, when you actually see who this person truly is, you find that what they do is not because they truly care about the customers they work for but it’s all for the purpose of covering their own butt and to receive accolades from their customers.

Unfortunately, when you are the Supervisor, you have to deal with this person while avoiding their spiteful, malicious attacks on your character and trying to manage the others within your team, successfully. It is really hard to do and their nasty attitude can bring you down, especially when you are particularly stressed or having an off day but the one thing you must understand and realize is that this person will never change because they have no insight and that this person is the way they are with everyone (at least they are consistent) so it is not because of you, specifically that they are so rotten. They would act this way with anyone who is their supervisor. So, as hard as it is to do sometimes, you have to remind yourself to not take it personally. This is especially a hard lesson for me: a sensitive, loving, kind and gentle person who doesn’t understand malicious, manipulative, calculating people.

To this day I still do not understand why someone would choose to put that much effort or energy into, basically, negative endeavors.

I choose to live my life not worrying about negative things that happened in the past, not harboring bitterness or grief, taking one day at a time and one step at a time being as genuine, honest and as fair as I can be with everyone that I come in contact with. If something perceived as “bad” happens to me then there must be a reason for it or a lesson to learn in it and then I move on. I will overcome anything that happens and I don’t have to document little grievances (petty things like a co-worker or the Supervisor going over a few minutes in lunches or breaks) over years of my life to save my job. I don’t get it. I don’t understand this logic or thinking. And it’s a waste of energy and effort I can put forth elsewhere into a more positive outcome as in helping others along my path to become independent, self-sufficient and the best people they can be.

All I can come up with is, is that people like this are internally miserable and damaged somehow and they need help but don’t know it. Sadly, we have to deal with them in our day to day work life.

So, in the meantime, if you have someone like this in your own life, try to keep your chin up and smile because you deserve the best. Don’t let these petty little people get you down because it’s not worth your time or your energy to spend an extra second worrying about them and when their next sneak attack upon you will be.

In the end, they will never win despite whatever comes of their negative efforts.

** Continue to live your life with integrity, honesty and genuineness and you will have nothing to fear. Truth and light will always be on your side. You will always be the victor. **